


Aegon the Unsure

by CrazyEd



Series: The Summer That Ended [1]
Category: A Song of Ice and Fire - George R. R. Martin
Genre: Alternate History, Gen, Rhaegar Lives
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-31
Updated: 2017-08-31
Packaged: 2018-12-22 01:11:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,052
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11956572
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CrazyEd/pseuds/CrazyEd
Summary: The Conquerer. The Usurper. The Dragonbane. The Unworthy. The Unlikely. Five people to have sat upon the Iron Throne have borne the name Aegon. King Rhaegar's heir is destined to be the sixth, but how will history remember him? If Aegon himself was asked, it will not be particularly well, but he seems to be the only one who thinks that. Shortly after his fourteenth name day, he has a conversation with Lord Tywin Lannister about what makes a good ruler.





	Aegon the Unsure

The throne room of the Red Keep was Princess Nymeria's favourite room in the entire castle, but the least favourite of Prince Aegon's. While his younger sister inspected the massive black skull of the dragon that his namesake used to ride into battle, over three centuries ago, Aegon stared up at the steel monstrosity forged in the heat of its dragonflame. It would be his, one day, after his father had passed on into the light of the Seven. Aegon hoped that day would not come for many decades. He would make a terrible king, he just knew he would. He already knew he made a terrible prince.

  
Aegon the Conqueror. Aegon the Usurper. Aegon the Dragonbane. Aegon the Unworthy. Aegon the Unlikely. He wondered how history would remember Aegon, the Sixth Of His Name. The Weak? The Unsure? Aegon knew that he was not fit to be the king. He had known it for as long as he knew that he what kings were, and that he'd become one someday. That was perhaps, to him, the only quality he possessed of a ruler: the wisdom to know he'd be a terrible ruler. His only solace was that he would not be the worst king in history, unless the kings who burned men alive were discounted.

  
"You worry too much," Nymeria said to him from across the hall, as she ran a hand down one of Belarion's teeth. "If you do nothing but think about how you'll be a bad king, you will be." Her voice was quiet, but it echoed through the empty hall, and Aegon had no trouble hearing her despite the distance between them. Of course, she knew what he was thinking. She always did, though in this case, it wasn't hard to guess. The crown prince thought of little else while staring at the Iron Throne.

  
Aegon looked at his sister and smiled weakly at the sight of her profile in the dim light of the setting sun that filtered through the western windows of the Great Hall. Though she was short for her age and very willowy, Nymeria somehow resembled her tall and statuesque mother, the only woman Aegon thought more beautiful than her, as much as he did their father. It was the eyes, he thought; Nymeria had exactly the same large and sharp violet eyes as Lady Ashara. She had always been his favourite sibling, and the one he was closest to, but not even she understood this weight on his soul. To her, the throne room was nothing but the past, the Iron Throne a symbol to their family's might, and the dragon skulls a monument to their history. To Aegon, it was nothing but the future, and the burden he had been born to bear. "I know," he said, "but I'll be a worse king if I am a bad king who thinks himself great."

  
"That's exactly the kind of thing I'm talking about," replied Nymeria with a sigh. She turned around and walked towards him. They stood next to each other and up at the throne. With Nymeria close to him, he felt more confident. When it was empty, the throne room was unimaginably cold and lonely, but she made it feel smaller, and warmer. She did not understand his burden, but she helped him bear it, and he thought she knew that. "You sabotage yourself. Please, Aeg, just try and see it for the beauty it is. It's meant to inspire fear in those who would challenge our family. Not us." Aegon tried to do as Nymeria told him and stop worrying, at least for that very moment, and attempted to see the Iron Throne in the same light she did.

  
Aegon did not know how long they were standing there, staring at the throne in silence, before they were startled by the sound of a voice calling their names. "Prince Aegon, Princess Nymeria." The courteous voice belonged to Lord Tywin Lannister. The thick carpets on the floor had muffled the sound of his boots and, lost in their thoughts, Aegon and Nymeria had not noticed his approach until he was almost upon them. "Good evening." Although he had addressed both of them, his piercing green eyes focused solely on Aegon. "What are you doing?"

  
Aegon turned back towards the throne. "We were just admiring the throne, Lord Tywin." He was glad for the excuse to look away from the Hand of the King. "Don't let us keep you from any business you might have."

  
"My business is with you, my prince" said Tywin. He continued walking towards Aegon and Nymeria and stopped only a few feet behind them. "Now that you are almost a man grown, your father thinks it long overdue that you begin attending small council meetings, to better learn everything you will need to know when it comes time for you to sit on the throne." Aegon spun back around again to meet Tywin's eyes once more, despite his fear of them.

  
"Ex-excuse me?" he said, not believing what he had heard, though he was entirely certain of what he had. "Me? Sit on the small council?"

  
Tywin folded his hands behind his back and nodded once. "Only to observe its workings and understand its function. To prepare you to be king, and not just admire that throne, but to sit upon it." Aegon swallowed the lump in the back of his throat and nodded back once in return.

  
"Ve-very well," Aegon stuttered, "If that's what father desires." He looked at his sister, but Nymeria's eyes were glued to the floor. She was more intimidated by Lord Twyin than Aegon was, if that was possible.

  
"It is," he stated matter-of-factly. "In time, your father may come to seek your opinion on small matters. If you do well, then when I die, he may make you Hand of the King in my place. And when the time comes, he will die, and you will become king. You must acquire as much experience ruling as you can, between this time and that."

  
Aegon placed his hand on Nymeria's shoulder. "Merry, may I speak to Lord Twyin alone?" She scurried off without looking at him. Aegon was glad he was able to find an excuse for her to leave, but he wished he had one for himself. Aegon turned back around and stared up at the Iron Throne while he tried to think of one. But all the fear returned to him in a great big wave now that Nymeria was gone and he was looking at the throne again. Unlike with Nymeria, being alone with Lord Tywin and the throne was worse than if he had been truly alone with it. The question came, unbidden, to his lips. "Is it as uncomfortable as it looks?" he blurted out without thinking. Tywin walked forwards until they were standing shoulder to shoulder and looked up at the throne as well.

  
He did not answer immediately. "It is by far the worst chair I have ever sat on, but it is also by far the greatest." If his brother Arthur had said that, it would have sounded like a joke, but joking was one of the few things Aegon thought Tywin was incapable of. "Aegon the Conqueror designed it that way. Do you know why?"

  
"A king must... A king never sit easy." answered Aegon. How many times had his father said those words to him?

  
"A king must never sit easy," Tywin repeated in agreement. "Your grandfather sat easily upon that throne. He sat so easily upon it that it cut him daily. People took to calling him 'King Scab', though never to his face. I do not think I need to tell you he was a bad king." Aegon shook his head. Calling Aerys the Second "a bad king" was like calling the Wall a fence. "However, the opposite is also true. A king who sits too gently can be as bad as a king who sits too easily. Do you want to be king?"

  
Aegon was taken aback by the question. The only other person who had directly asked him that particular question was Nymeria. He looked down at the ground. The last thing in the world he wanted to do was answer that question. The truth was terrible, and not only would a lie be worse, but Tywin would instantly see through it. Tywin did not speak. He did not even take his eyes away from the Iron Throne. The weight of the silence was unbearable, and Aegon felt his shoulders slump as if it was a physical weight upon him. "I don't have the strength to be a good king." he finally said. It wasn't an answer to quite the question Lord Tywin had asked, but at least it was true. "I can ride, joust, and swing a sword as well as any man could ask me to, but I can't rule."

  
"Daeron the First was a strong king," said Tywin. "He was younger than you are now when he conquered Dorne. No king in the history of the Seven Kingdoms had done that; not even Aegon the Conqueror. What moniker does history remember him with?"

  
"Daeron the Young Dragon," Aegon answered.

  
"Yes," replied Tywin, "the _Young_ Dragon. Why?"

  
"He died when he was very young. Nine-and-ten, I think."

  
"Eight," corrected Tywin. "He was only two years older than you are now when he died trying to retake Dorne, after it rose in rebellion. Daeron was a _strong_ king. No one denies that. But was Daeron a _good_ king?"

  
Aegon thought long and hard about that question. What did he know about the reign of Daeron the Young? Nothing but the Conquest of Dorne. There was nothing to Daeron's reign but the Conquest of Dorne, he realized. He was killed by treachery by the Dornishmen while under a peace banner after they rebelled. "No," he finally answered.

  
"No," agreed Tywin. "He threw away ten thousand lives conquering Dorne and he threw away forty thousand more trying to hold it. Would that be how you wanted to be remembered, as a king?"

  
The answer to that question was far easier than the first. "No." He wanted to be remembered as a good king. What king would want to be remembered as a bad king? But wanting to be a good king and being a good king were two completely different things. He looked up at the Iron Throne and swallowed nervously. Silence again fell over the Great Hall as Aegon thought. The Iron Throne was his birthright, but it was also his burden, and his duty. But if he could, he would give the crown to Arthur. Arthur was the one who should be Prince of Dragonstone, not him. Aegon couldn't even talk to girls. How was he supposed to command bannermen and rule seven kingdoms?

  
But would the realm accept a legitimized bastard as their king? Many had supported Daemon Blackfyre over Daeron the Good, and whenever Aegon heard stories of Daemon Blackfyre from Nymeria, they reminded him a lot of Arthur. If he supported Arthur's claim to the throne, would anybody reject it? He had wondered all this, and more, countless times. Men respected Aegon as a warrior, but they loved Arthur. He could have almost any girl he wanted, and did have many of them. How could Aegon compare to his brother? He only useful with a sword in his hand. "Lord Tywin, you asked me if I wanted to be king. What if I don't? What if I don't think I'd be a good king? What then?"

  
"Then learn to be a good king, while you still have time. I will see you at the council meeting tomorrow morning, Prince Aegon." Lord Tywin gave him a curt nod, turned on his heel, and marched away from Aegon with his hands still folded behind his back. Aegon watched until he could no longer see him, and then he left the Great Hall as well, and headed to Maegor's Holdfast to retire for the night. Learn to be a good king, Lord Tywin said. Thinking of his buxom and strong-willed cousin Arianne, Aegon thought that for now, he should first learn how to talk to girls.

**Author's Note:**

> I didn't precisely intend for it to turn out this way, but in the end, it seems like this is my version of the lesson Tywin gives Tommen about what makes a good king in the Great Sept of Baelor after the death of Joffrey. I don't know how common it is to portray Rhaegar's heir as the archetypal "unsure heir" in fanfiction, but I couldn't recall seeing it offhand, so I thought I'd try my hand at presenting him as such. Consider this the introduction to this history's version of the future King Aegon VI. I'd like to write something like this for Prince Arthur Targaryen in the future, if I can imagine something similar for the character.
> 
> Retrospective (7/7/18): Urgh, this. While I stand by not just deleting it, I've really grown to dislike this story. I'm still really new to fanfiction, and this was my first real attempt at it, and... Tywin is just all wrong. I felt that when I posted it, but with time it's only gotten worse. I apologize for this shameful attempt at writing him (if it can even be called an attempt at writing Tywin Lannister).


End file.
